Bella da morire

I wasn't expecting this. With an amazing cast and funny scenes, this satire surprised me greatly.

The movie is about this pageant competition in a small town. Everyone is weird and that is What makes this film really fun.

This is a great film for anyone who hates beauty pageants, and enjoys dark humor. The "mockumentary" aspect was done greatly, and the performances were also great, especially by (the very hot) Kirsten Dunst. I really like films that poke fun at serious topics (like death and mourning), and this one did a great job of it without being completely tasteless.

I never expected to enjoy this movie. In fact, I thought I was going to hate it. "Beauty pageant themed, chick-flick comedy", right? Stupid jokes about hair, dresses, and stuff I couldn't care less about, right? Wrong. It's presented in that faux-documentary (or mockumentary) style that Christopher Guest has perfected. It pokes fun at middle America, small towns, that sort of "redneckish patriotism" we see so often, and of course the way these contestants (and their parents) take themselves WAY too seriously. It also shines as a mostly female comedic sandbox where Allison Janney, Ellen Barkin, Kirsten Dunst, Brittany Murphy, and Kirstie Allie can show off their comedic skills (I had no idea that some of them had it in them). All I can say is that it's hilarious. Will Sasso is the greatest "handi-capable" character ever put on film. His "cheerleading" as Kirsten Dunst spells every state in alphabetical order is comedy gold. If you don't laugh...you're dead inside.

This is a seriously funny film, deeply subversive and a great piece of work. What it's not is a satire on the vacuousness of beauty pageants.

DDG aims at the emptiness of our whole materialistic culture and the way we have traded in the more valuable things in life for the pursuit of a perfect self image and will even cash in that perverted, limited objective for a few minutes of fame on TV. Life is a house of cards with hidden truths under every shiny surface.

The humour is so dense and the jokes are so profligately thrown around that it occasionally feels like an incarnation of The Simpsons, 54 episodes of which benefited from the efforts of DDG scriptwriter Lona Williams. She may have written your favourite. The performances are no less praiseworthy with outstanding leads and fabulous and memorable minor characters. Look out for the Sheriff. Amongst them all, I'll single out two which I think are pitch perfect, Sam McMurray as the ruthless father in thrall to his wife and daughter and Nora Dunn as the drunken 'has it come to this?' State Pageant organiser. There are lots of others to choose from.

Every you time you watch you get something new, enabling you to rejoice further in the fact that half the people who watch it don't get any of it at all. In fact it's so sharp that even people who like this type of thing can get cut to pieces by it. We are, after all, watching ourselves. Mind your fingers . . .

Most smartest and funniest American film since The Producers? Yes, it's THAT good.

Quite bluntly, this film is stupid. However, it's a rare breed, one of those "good" "stupid movies". I've read some reviews criticizing this film for not accurately portraying Minnesota. Some viewers simply don't get it. This movie is supposed to be "stupid". It is not supposed to be some supremely accurate social depiction of small town Minnesota. It is a mockumentary and an intentionally absurd exaggeration. And it works like a charm. If you "get it", this will be one of the funniest movies you'll ever view. The actors are almost, top to bottom, perfect... especially the portrayals of Amber Atkins' mother and aunt, and the Vilmes father and son. I can see how certain viewers would absolutely abhor this seemingly inane, ridiculous film. But it is, truly, a phenomenally clever spoof on a competition many treat as life and death. In fact, it's almost frightening that there's a little more realism in this farce than most would like to admit. This film is simply a fabulous little spectacle.

Best line: "You are a good person. Good things happen to good people." "Really?" "No, it's pure bull____, sweetie. You're lucky as hell, so you might as well enjoy it."